TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. [10], In 1966, thanks to his friendship with Hansgen, word quickly spread to the Ford Motor Company about the young driver. He said so himself many times. That sense of realism often hits Mark Donohues son. Walt Czarnecki, Team Penske vice chairman and among the operations early members, has a deep admiration and respect for what Donohue meant to the Penske organization. But in eight months of retirement, the quiet, wellspoken kid from the other side of the tracks learned that the hobby that had become an obsession still haunted him. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Donohue died in the one aspect of auto racing he Had not conqueredgrand prix. August 19th marks twenty-five years ago that Mark Donohue passed away from brain trauma, which was caused from an accident while practicing for a Formula 1 event. Sponsored by Ancestry. He won many races for us and the first IROC championship with the Porsche. One night I was in Philadelphia and was following Mark to the old shop in Newtown Square. A mechanical engineering graduate from a wealthy New Jersey background, Donohue won everything in sight on the US scene, in every major category. Donohue was hit in the head by a fence post and knocked unconscious. This. Hamilton: F1 retirement talk from Button and Hill not "helpful, How Gulf deal has boosted Williams's F1 commercial strategy, How Gulf deal has boosted Williams's F1 commercial strategy He won the Can Am championship in 197, the TransAm title in 1968, 1969 and 1971. In addition, the horrific events at the 1973 Indianapolis 500 and the subsequent death of his friend, Swede Savage, pushed him to quit. Mark felt he had to devote all his time to the team. We were there to go racing.. 1975, resulting from an accident two days earlier during practice for the Austrian Grand Prix. Your message has been sent. He just decided it was time to get out, and he wanted to do the Formula 1 program, Penske said. Donohue was able to muster fifth-place finishes at the Swedish Grand Prix and the British Grand Prix, but the new Penske PC1 chassis proved problematic, as evidenced by three retirements in the first six races. This remains the last time a ringer captured a win in a Cup Series road course race, but the victory took on a far greater meaning in hindsight. Donohue dominated the 1967 race, driving a Lola T70 MkIII Chevrolet for Penske. During a practice session for the race, Donohue lost control of his March after a tyre failed, sending him into the catch fencing at the fastest corner on the track, Vest Hgel Kurve. I don't think I could have handled that.. He was so key in the operation when he was there its something we had to rebuild. The search for Mark Donohue concludes in the upscale community of Summit, New Jersey just outside of New York City. He wanted to know how we were doing. Donohue paced himself that day and took the lead for the first time with 12 laps to go. It is strangely rewarding in a way I never thought racing would be for me, personally. Among the most impressive cars in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is the beautiful blue and yellow No. His 59 wins remain the most of any driver for Team Penske. The latter passed away at 09h20 on Tuesday 19 August 1975, while being treated at a Knittelfeld hospital.Donohue was hit in the head by one of the catch-fence supporting posts and was knocked unconscious. 500-mile (800km) SCCA endurance event, which he won. It served as the first NASCAR victory for aspiring team owner Roger Penske, a proverbial snowball sent rolling down a path thatd alter the entire American auto racing landscape. However, the Penske Formula One car proved unsound and Donohue's best finish this year was a fifth place. I used to hate riding with him to the airport, said Don Cox, a former chief engineer at Penske Racing when Donohue was with the team. Drexel University 1973 Lexerd (Yearbook), pp. Roger Penske and Mark Donohue following Donohue's IROC win in 1974. Foyt and Emerson Fittipaldi, among others tangible proof that, stock-car equipment being even, Donohue was a world beater. With Donohues methodical approach and his commitment to work for Penske fulltime that counted for a lot Penske said. He was hit on the side of his helmet with debris as his car, which had suffered a punctured tire, went out of control in prerace practice and crashed through four rows of wire catchfences and some billboards along the Oesterreichring race course. Most of Donohues wins (28) came in Trans-Am, the United States Road Racing Championship (12) and Can-Am (10). By 1973, the "Captain Nice" nickname he had earned earlier in his career was being supplanted by the nickname "Dark Monohue". And my wife gave me permission, so when something like that happens you have to go. A bad week or the dark horse from F1 testing? He was passionate about racing. When you see the car in real life, it becomes so much more real.. With his marriage to Sue falling apart, Donohues personal life was in turmoil. See the article in its original context from. DUI accident in the history of this county," Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said at a news conference. Donohue went on to win the first-ever 500-mile USAC Champ Car Series race at Pocono in 71 and claimed victory at Indianapolis in his return in 1972. I could see what was coming, he said. It affected the whole team. It was. Mark Robert Bonhag, 56, of the Highland, Md., area was driving north on New Hampshire Avenue in the . To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. . In 1971, of the ten races that the Over 2.5L Class cars participated in, Donohue won seven of them, including the final six races in a row, with AMC winning the Manufacturers' championship for the first time ever. The car did a series of cartwheels, and Donohue broke both legs. We may earn money from the links on this page. A track marshal was killed by debris from the accident, but Donohue did not appear to be injured significantly. After the Arab oil embargo in 1973, it led the SCCA, IMSA and other race series to impose fuel limitations on motor sport racing as a whole, which hampered the performance of the 917/30, making it uncompetitive in the Can-Am series. One track marshal was killed by the crash and another seriousy injured. Donohue was the driver of Penskes first Brickyard effort in 1969. First to go was his marriage, says Argetsinger. Donohues degree from Brown in Mechanical Engineering got him a job designing filters for air conditioners -- not quite what he had in mind. The Ferrari lived up to none of Marks calculations, and he was devastated, Bedard recalls. Donohue, too, recognized the accomplishment as something of a walk-off home run for his career, briefly retiring following his IROC championship before returning later that year with Penske to compete in the final two Formula 1 races. When Donohue took the Ferrari to Le Mans, the car attained only 205 mph on the straight versus the Porsche 917s 235 mph. Autoweek participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. Mark contracted polio when he was 6, but he fully recovered. 1975 Camaro Racemark GT Bob Bailey. ), entered April 29, 2014 in Albany County, which granted a motion by defendants James Finck and Tougher Industries Enterprises, LLC for summary judgment dismissing the complaint against them. [4] He was survived by his wife and two sons from his first marriage. Aug 21, 2015, 4:28 PM. Once, in 1971, he and Penske showed up at the Canadian Grand Prix and Jackie Stewart, the former world champion, kidded them: Welcome to the major leagues.. Once, Penske rented a Formula One car for Donohue and in 1971, in his first start in one of these singleseat, opencockpit racing cars, he finished third in the Canadian Grand Prix. Mark won the 1972 Indianapolis 500 when David was just five. the email address you entered is invalid. After considering the potential consequences, the race stewards allowed Donohue's victory to stand, but the rules for the 1968 season incorporated a change whereby all cars would be weighed during the technical inspection before the race. He began to spend more than time. Mark Donohue races to the win at the the 1972 Indy 500. We were the college kids with the crew cuts and the polished wheels, Penske said. Were far from having too much horsepower, he asserted. Mark Donohue was 38 and a sports car champion and 1972 Indianapolis 500 winner. Worse yet, when Donohue wasnt racing, he was working 18- to 20-hour days at the teams small race shop, located in a garage in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia suburb, and later, a more modern facility in nearby Reading. In the 19721973 season, driving an AMC Matador for Penske Racing in NASCAR's top division, the Winston Cup Series, Donohue won the season-opening event at Riverside. I realized then that if I wanted to do better in this business I had to spend more time on my car, he said. The winner of the 1972 Indianapolis 500 and the Can Am in l973. Michael is another guy but there is this thing between Mark and David, even in terms of their life experiences. Donohue drove the Javelin to three victories, with AMC finishing second overall in the Manufacturers' Championship. Though he walked away from the resulting crash, he fell into a coma the next day and, shortly after, died of a cerebral hemorrhage. It was, as they say in racing, a freak accident. They discovered that using a drag racing trick of dipping a car in an acid bath would eat away small amounts of metal, which in turn made the car incrementally lighter, and allowed it to be driven faster. GRAZ, Austria, Aug. 19 (AP)Mark Donohue, who ended an eightmonth retirement as an auto driver last year because he couldn't keep away from racing, died tonight of injuries suffered Sunday at the Austrian Grand Prix. They were just forging ahead, David Donohue recalled. Don Cox would later join the team in 1969 after working as an engineer for General Motors. Brad Keselowski is second with 54 wins in NASCAR Xfinity and Monster Energy Cup Series racing. A fire at the Sunoco refinery near the airport dominated the front pages of The Philadelphia Inquirer, but the sports section belonged to Mark Donohue, a racecar driver who had blown a tire during a practice run before the Austrian Grand Prix and died from complications related to the accident two days later, August 19, 1975. Sometimes, I would leave early and take my own car to the airport because I didnt want to put up with him. My involvement in racing has been like a jigsaw puzzle, David Donohue told Autoweek. Seeing another man driving your car, a car you know so well. We may earn a commission for purchases made through our links. In 1968, Donohue and Penske returned to defend their USRRC championship with the McLaren M6A Chevrolet. Penske, along with Donohue's wife, Eden, and father, Mark Sr., were at Donohue's bedside. The driver of the Honda was killed. On August 9, 1975, Donohue drove the 917-30 to a world closed-course speed record at the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. To those who knew him best, he had a tremendous sense of humor and enjoyed pulling pranks. In the final race of the season, Javelins finished in first, second and third place, with George Follmer becoming the only other Javelin driver to win besides Donohue. In his career, Donohue started 311 races and won 119 of them, a winning average of 38 percent. Ford had developed a new GT, the Mark IV. Email or password is incorrect. Its something that Ive looked at since I was really young as a kid, Donohue said. At the age of twenty-two,[citation needed] while a senior at Brown, Donohue began racing his 1957 Corvette. A Pennsylvania native by the name of Mark Donohue, the reigning Indianapolis 500 winner, pedaled a red-white-and-blue AMC Matador to his only Cup Series victory in six career starts. Auto Race Car Driver. Donohue's death was announced by a spokesman for Roger Penske, a close personal friend and his team boss. Donohue. When David Donohue was young, he never really got to know his father -- Mark Donohue. He was on for a second appearance at the Glen, but a practice accident saw Mark being replaced by David Hobbs. There was little question then that Donohue, who would testdrive the new car and help supervise its development, would come out of retirement. Mark Donohue. I had just put in 30 consecutive hours of writing, editing, and laying out race reports for CAR Weekly, which we sometimes spelled Weakly because there were only five of us and we possessed merely the slimmest notion of what we were doing. Mark Donohue drove the Porsche 917-30 Can-Am after making various aerodynamic and suspension modifications. The singleseat, opencockpit Formula One cars used in grand prix racing have been called torpedoes. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. What we learned from Friday practice at F1's 2023 Bahrain GP. That long association resulted in the ultimate triumph for an American driver in 1972, when he won the Indianapolis 500. (Photo: Bob DOlivo / The Enthusiast Network via Getty Images). Please try again. He knew racing drivers couldn't come back. His lone NASCAR race win was just part of his narrative, but that victory another hurdle in auto racing cleared in partnership with Penske helped ignite a flame thats lasted over 50 years across different genres of the sport and in turn elevated the quality and intelligence of American racing. 66 Penske Racing entry went on to win at Indianapolis in 1972 to give Roger Penske the first of his 17 Indy 500 wins. The book was re-released in 2000 by Bentley Publishers (Cambridge, Massachusetts). It was always on to the next project.. His first marriage ended in divorce and some friends blamed racing. George Follmer, Donohue's old Trans-Am teammate, took over testing the 917-10 for Donohue, who said: It just doesn't feel right. There was also Earl McMullen and Bill Cox, who worked for the teams sponsor, Sun Oil. Choose a Username Available! Prof. Fritz Heppner, head of the neurosurgical department at Graz Hospital, said irreparable damage had been done to that part of the brain that controls involuntary body functions. There was no real color out of it. The two had a tremendous respect for each other and put their own personal egos aside to win races. Im sure David really missed out on a lot. David followed his father into sports car racing for Porsche. Donohue is probably best known as the driver of the 1500+ bhp "Can-Am Killer" Porsche 917-30 and as the winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 1972. A 25-year-old passenger in the Infiniti, a woman from Olney, was seriously hurt and taken to the hospital. My friends began warning me., Racing was becoming an obsession, but in 1965, he realized: Maybe I can make a living out of something like to do. It is said that Donohue's head struck either a catch fencing post or the bottom of the wood frame for an advertising billboard located alongside of the racetrack. Instructions on how to reset your password have been sent to your email. It was August 9, 1975. But he kept complaining of headaches and Mario Andretti, who also has an obsession with grand prix racing, said Donohue was lapsing in and out of consciousness, Donohue was rushed to a hospital at Graz where grays revealed blood clot on the brain. During the day, being the state of health still worrying, he was airlifted to the Universittsklinik of Graz where he was operated by Dr. Fritz Heppner. From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. Mark Donohue was one of the daredevil drivers of the 1970's. He exuded boyhood charm, was a speed demon behind the wheel, and was a legend of US racing, with wins at Daytona, the Indy 500, and Trans-Am Champion. When she brought us in to see the finish, I dont think she knew he had won. Donohue was a . In 1961, Donohue bought the Elva and battled with another young racing star, Peter Revson, for the SCCA divisional championship. Has Alonso made the right choice gambling on Aston Martin F1? He was very quiet, very unassuming, Mario Andretti told Autoweek. Both Olvey and Trammell got their start in trackside medical response in similar fashion: Answering a bulletin board call for med students to help out at the Indianapolis 500 - Olvey in about 1969, Trammell in 1972. Today, he works. When Penske Racing took delivery of a Ferrari 512M, for instance, they immediately fabricated a bigger rear wing. We went to Phoenix and tested it with the wings off and then put the wings on and couldnt believe how fast it was. In fact, Mark often wasnt the engineer at all. He won Indy and we juiced him up and he was out there giving a speech and he was so funny that his sense of humor came out and everybody loved it. Alonso "not thinking" about Bahrain pole despite topping Friday times, Why Las Vegas is key to F1's growth plans, Why Las Vegas is key to F1's growth plans On January 21, 1973, the NASCAR Cup Series opened its season with a road course race at Riverside International Raceway in California. Donohue raced in the inaugural IROC series in 197374, racing identical, specially-prepared Porsche RSRs. A motorist was killed early Tuesday in a single-car crash in Montgomery County, police said. No one knew, but Mark Donohue had just 10 days to live. In all, there were 57 major victories and more than $1million in purses for this pleasant, intelligent man who gave up a career in mechanical engineering because racing is what he wanted to do. Mark Donohue racked in 59 career wins for Team Penske in several different series. In everything he droveeven an Elva Courier and a Cobra, cars he didnt develophe still won. I saw him race at Lime Rock in an Elva, and (longtime Penske friend and later president of the IROC series) Jay Signore said I should watch this guy. For the remainder of the 1970 season, Donohue ran a different Lola, with Chevy power, finishing second (again behind Al Unser) at Indianapolis Raceway Park in July. Between 1971 and 1972, Penske Racing (along with Donohue as the primary test and development driver) was commissioned by Porsche to help develop the 917-10 to compete in the Can-Am series. The practice sessions were marred by serious accidents; Brian Henton destroyed his Lotus after sliding in an oil patch, and Wilson Fittipaldi broke his hand when crashing at the Rindt Kurve. And I know that Roger loved him. A Montgomery County man who crashed his car and fled from the wreck, leaving three of his friends dead or dying, on Thursday was sentenced . In winning the first IROC championship, Donohue beat the best racing drivers of that era from all of the major championships, such as Denny Hulme, Richard Petty, A. J. Foyt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Peter Revson, Bobby Unser, and Gordon Johncock. By then, he had remarried to a model from Atlanta named Eden. Hed eventually swap leads with Richard Petty, but took the reins of the race for good for the final 75 circuits, lapping the entire field in the process. Donohue raced at Indianapolis each year following,[15] finishing second in 1970 and 25th in 1971. We brought some technology. The hotrod phenomenon came East from California and caught me up in it, he once explained. He tinkered his way all through Pingry School, Brown University and a job as a mechanical engineer with the Pulverizing Machinery Corporation in Summit. This was not merely a celebrity autobiography, but a detailed, step-by-step record of the engineering approach he took to getting the absolutely highest performance from every car he drove, always looking for that elusive "unfair advantage". I get all of these tiny little stories from everybody where my dad grabbed this guy as a kid and sat him in the car -- and that motivated him enough to go to engineering school. I could see myself helping to develop the Formula One car, setting it up and then having some younger hotshot driver take over. He never regained consciousness. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. That is where Mark Donohue often slept when he worked his way to near exhaustion at the race shop. When he came out, he was a different person. Mark Donohue's Fatal Crash - sterreichring 1975 (42 years ago) Humphrey The Auto Racing Fan 1989 2.38K subscribers Subscribe 54 Save 13K views 5 years ago Notice Age-restricted video. However, like most race drivers in the various top racing series around the world, he had lived an outright lot of life. I know their first conversation after the race, he didnt say (that he had won). It was hard to believe because Donohue and team owner Roger Penske were then the cleverest guys in racing. Watts.) When Penske decided late to enter Formula One full time, Donohue had a difficult decision to make. As Roger Penske said, Mark wasnt flashy, but he put the numbers on the board.. 1968 would be a banner year for Donohue in the Trans-Am series, as he successfully defended his 12 Hours of Sebring victory by partnering with Craig Fisher and driving his Penske Chevrolet Camaro to victory. The tangible steps Alpine has taken to meeting its humble F1 2023 targets, Why "grounded" Hamilton remains confident in Mercedes' F1 recovery, Why "grounded" Hamilton remains confident in Mercedes' F1 recovery Airport would have sent a stock Camaro flopping around. And given enough time just one more year, maybe he wouldve become Americas first world champion.. I think the people at Indy thought we were the college guys with the crew haircuts and the polished wheels. To those who work at the cemetery, Donohue is simply known as The Race Car Driver to visitors looking for his gravesite. Mercedes: New W14 sidepod design wont copy F1 rivals, FIA grants Hamilton medical exemption to wear nose studs, FIA grants Hamilton medical exemption to wear nose studs They sent the legal weight car through the technical inspection with the number 15 and again with the number 16 on it. Search instead in Creative? I always said driving wasn't really a dangerous situation. Mark Donohue was killed during a practice session for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix. Make sure you track out all the way for Turn 7. He did everything he could to lose me. In 1969, Penske and Donohue raced in their first Indianapolis 500,[14] with Donohue finishing seventh, winning the rookie of the year award. A Pennsylvania native by the name of Mark Donohue, the reigning Indianapolis 500 winner, pedaled a red-white-and-blue AMC Matador to his only Cup Series victory in six career starts. Mark Donohue SCCA national champion early in a career Donohue was born in New Jersey on March 18, 1937, and became involved in racing as a senior at college. Some day, they promised each other, Donohue would try to become the first American since Phil Hill in 1961 to win the world driving chmpionship. An investigation determined tire failure caused Donohue's fatal crash, and the family won a $12 million settlement. He was a sweet gentleman in every race. Nine weeks before the Le Mans race, while testing a GT40 Mk II in the rain, Donohue's friend and former teammate Walt Hansgen lost control and crashed his car into an escape road barrier, suffering fatal injuries. Donohue was able to obtain two fifth places in the Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp and in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, but scored five DNF's in the first 11 races of the season.A few days before going to Zeltweg for the Austrian Grand Prix, scheduled to be contested on 17 August 1975, Penske and Porsche attempted to set the world closed-course record. He wanted to show he could do it all again. He died in 1975 a day after a crash during practice for the Austrian Grand Prix. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. who retired from one of the greatest careers in auto racing history at age 36, unretired at 37 and died Tuesday night at 38 of brain injuries suffered in a crash before the Austrian Grand Prix. It became official last September. Two weeks ago, however, he showed he had not lost his skill at getting a race car around a track when he set a world speed record of 221.160 miles an hour for a closed course. Portrait of American racing driver Mark Donohue as he poses with his car after winning the Indianapolis 500 race, Speedway, Indiana, May 1972. . The 1967 Z-28 won its last race by lapping the entire field of cars, causing suspicion throughout the paddock. But this was a safe driver, a man who knew his limits, his car's limits and didn't go over the edge, as they say in racing. Police have not yet released his identity. Donohues dad was often racing in the United States or Canada for a fledgling operation called Penske Racing. GRAZ, Austria, Aug. 19 (AP)Mark Donohue, who ended an eightmonth retirement as an auto driver last year because he couldn't keep away from racing, died tonight of injuries suffered Sunday at. Late in 1973, when Penske decided to build a Formula One car for the 1975 season, Donohue knew what would happen. Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Its a goal he had and a goal he checked off.